So the other day, I came across this personal project started by AJ Dimarucot that involved creating a personal brand for one of the NBA's more recent rising stars, Jeremy Lin.

I immediately thought that this was one of the better athlete brands out there (even thought it was only a personal branding exercise), because it was quite a versatile mark and it held meaning in so many layers. Not only was AJ able to marry Jeremy's initials with his number, he was able to add a final touch by adding a cross using the composition's negative space. Genius, considering Jeremy Lin has been very open about his faith.




Other well designed athlete brands:



Lebron James
I've mentioned Jame's brand in a previous post and I still think it's one of my favourite athlete brands around – especially with regard to the intelligent rebranding after dropping the 23 in honour of Michael Jordan. Click here to view my last post regarding this equally effective change.



Roger Federer
Not only is he one of the greatest to ever play the game, he's always been known as one of the classiest tennis players playing today. From the way he carries himself on and off the courts to his fashionable taste on and off the court, this mark is a well designed, simplistic and articulated mark that's highly representative of Roger.



Chris Paul
To be honest, I didn't even realize Chris Paul had his own brand but it makes total sense considering he's a key part of the Jordan brand. I'm a big fan of this mark because of its simplicity and how well it integrated CP with his number 3 with a smart use of negative space.



Vince Carter
For very similar reasons as the previous mark, I love the way VC has been incorporated with his number 15, this time to create a very abstracted and unified mark. Oh Vince, if only you had stayed in Toronto – your career could've taken a completely different turn. In any case, you put our city on the map and you will forever be remembered for your contributions.



Derek Rose
Simple and straightforward. This logo plays on Derek's nickname D.Rose by incorporating the D into the petals of well … a rose. It's always great when a designer is presented with a name that lends itself easily to a nice visual.

These ones garnered some well deserved headshakes:

I don't want to get into any detail with any of these – just look at them and you'll understand.



Carmelo Anthony



Steve Nash



Russell Westbrook



Deron Williams


Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative

With growing numbers website security is being tested and are being hacked by anonymous computer users with nothing better to do than cause havoc to innocent website owners.

A few minor items to remember:

1. Always use the latest applications and plugins. Most updates address security vulnerabilities.

2. Protect your shared hosting account passwords and change them regularly.

3. Check your hosting company. Recently, shared hosts have been targets of hackers because of the sheer volume of their accounts. Make sure they have your best interests in mind and provide 24-hour backups of your data, plus server-side security like firewalls.

4. Protect your dynamic website's configuration files using htaccess which is a password protection scheme used by Apache Web Servers.

5. Applications like the popular Wordpress CMS have third party plugins that can scan the content of your website for intrusions.

6. Backup your clean website and database and make sure whoever is authorized to access the site has a secure environment.

Keep up to date with the Internet and especially it's security: http://www.brecorder.com/it-a-computers/206/1241617/


Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative

One of Mystique's newest website developments. Visit the new Oloir Interiors website featuring furniture, fabrics, drapery and assorted interior design accessories, serving Toronto and the GTA.


Frank Beecham
Mystique Creative

With the London 2012 olympics officially coming to a close today, I've come to realize that I don't feel as repulsed by the London olympics branding as I did when they first unveiled their identiy – in fact I think I'm actually starting to warm to it.

I think once I got a chance to see the brand across different platforms and mediums, be it television broadcasts graphics, printed materials and signage – it really started to fall together. Don't get me wrong, the 2012 portion of the logo is still quite hideous but now it seems more fun than anything. They custom typeface they developed has also grown on me too, it's just quirky and fun – perfectly suited for the atmosphere of olympic games.

Now I think, with a little openness, consistency and time and space to show the true breadth its communications, a brand can thrive and succeed, even if it is quite hideous at first sight.

With that regard, here are some rebrands that I was initially rather disappointed with but I'm really starting to warm up to because they are finding their way. Click on the logos to check out underconsiderations 'Brand New' blog posts to see how these brands have been applied.







Rene Tan
Graphic Designer
Mystique Creative

Many businesses up to date with social media have themselves a fancy business page. Your business page may consist of a cool cover photo with a logo for a profile picture and albums with photos, work samples, employees, contact info and the like. But is all this information really getting through to your target market?

Facebook uses a fairly simple algorithm to determine what gets through onto the news feed or Edgerank as Facebook likes to call it. The news feed is called Edgerank because every piece of content is known as an “edge”. So pictures, videos and links are all an “edge” and all rank high compared to other edge content. But that’s not the only thing. A status with lots of likes or comments gets noticed for its “edge” and thus gets ranked appropriately.

The news feed algorithm is based on these three things: Affinity, Edge weight and Recency.

Affinity is basically interaction. The more you interact with someone, the more you see him or her pop up in your news feed. This is the same for a business. However, this is only one way. If you as a business creep on users that have liked your page it does not mean they will see your business posts more in their news feed.

Edge weight. This is essentially looking at all Facebook content and favoring certain items that are typically more interesting, cool, interactive etc. These items as listed previously are pictures, videos and links. BUT, every Facebook users edge weights are different so don’t just stick to those three or you may never reach a potential customer.

Recency is the third part of the equation. If it’s old it has a smaller chance of being seen in your target markets news feed. The newest content at the moment that the user is on Facebook is more likely to be viewed.

How does knowing this information help you be a more social media savy business?

Make sure to post relevant, target market appropriate content that will get your users to interact with you. That way you’ll start showing up in his or her feed more. Words like Where, When, Why and Would are all great for getting likes and comments.

Mix up your posts. Post videos, links, photos, status updates and anything your target market would find interesting. The more varied your posts are the more reach you have as a business.

Finally, post content at times when you think your target market is most likely to be online. That way your recently added content is smack in the middle of their news feed.

Staying on top of your social media marketing can be quite the feat, and Mystique would be happy to help!


Carolyn Jobse
Production Coordinator
Mystique Creative